tonysauer

The park is a former KOA right off of Hwy 101 in Fortuna, an old logging town. It’s near four chain hotels and the Eel River Brewery and Restaurant. It’s about 1/2 mile from Safeway, Starbucks and various other stores.

The sites are a little cramped but the place is tidy. There laundry and a small store on site. They have wheelchair accessible bathrooms and showers. About half of the sites look to be permanent residents. Most of the overnight sites are pull through and are long enough for Long motorhomes and towed vehicles.

This is a fairly large Corps campground along the river about ten miles west of Clarkston, WA. Large grassy sites with full or partial hookups. There’s also a more private tent only area at the far end (east) of the RV area.

It’s privately run so they don’t offer the federal Senior or Access discounts. They did give us a $2.50 Good Sam discount, which put the price at $35 for water and 30 amp electrical.

The bathrooms and showers are clean but dated.

It’s a bit of a drive to Clarkston and Lewiston (10-15 minutes) but overall quite nice.

The nearby town is funky and there’s quite a bit of truck traffic getting into the campground, but the facility itself was nice. It sits just above the marina on the Columbia River. There’s a lot of freeway noise, even though it’s a half mile away. The pull through sites are roomy without much shade. The back in sites look pretty long and seem to have more shade. There is also decent free WiFi and great cell service.

We have stayed here a few times in the last 15 years. It’s owned by PG&E And the camp hosts keep the place very clean. The camping season is short (June-September) because Bucks Lake is high elevation and they get a lot of snow. There are no hookups but water and a dump station are on site. There are a couple of restaurants within a mile and a small store/sandwich shop, attached to a B&B, a few hundred feet from the campground.

The town of Quincy, CA is about 30 minutes to the north. The grades are steep climbing to Bucks Lake, especially if you come on the “back road”, from the south (Oroville area). If you come from Quincy, be sure you take the “new road”, which isn’t well marked but suggested for RVs (left turn about 4-6 miles from Meadow Valley). It has less curves and much less steep grades.

Boat rentals are available and there is a boat launch at the campground. There are lots of places to fish from the shore but I’ve never had luck catching anything. Note, that not catching fish is probably more of a reflection on me than the lake. If you’re looking for a quiet, remote lake with some amenities nearby, the campground fills that niche.

There is no cell coverage at the campground. You have to drive up the road a couple of miles to make calls or text. Ask locals where to go or look for people parked and on the phone along the road.

We’ve stayed here three or four times over the last twenty years and always wonder why we don’t come here more often. Indian Valley is one of three on the North Fork of the Yuba River, about ten miles southwest of Downieville, CA. This one is the only one that can accommodate larger RVs (our motorhome is 33’ with room to spare).

All sites are paved and have no hookups. There are a few water faucets, but bring your Water Thief as they are the typical Forest Service type with no threads for your hose. The vault toilets were clean and the camp hosts were there to clean sites as soon as people checked out. We were there on a weekend in September and it was full but relatively quiet. About half were in RVs and half in tents. The River is running higher than usual for September, which made for great sleeping sounds.

The Indian Valley Outpost is a half mile away and offers great food, ice cream and their store has essentials for campers. Unfortunately it is for sale again (September, 2019), so no telling if it will be open next season.

The campground was mostly wheelchair accessible with one site having a raised tent platform, although the reservation website and Reserve.gov call in center don’t have that noted , so you will need to call the Tahoe National Forest headquarters in Nevada City to ascertain which site that is. The bank to the River are a little steep, but a half mile down the hi-way at Fiddle Creek Campground there is a wheelchair accessible path that gets you near the North Fork of the Yuba River.

There is no cell service within ten miles. There is a pay phone at Indian Valley Outpost.

We stayed two nights in late February, which is about the time Quartzsite seems to roll up their sidewalks. Across the street there is a great bakery/coffee shop and an excellent rib place that close for the season at the end of February, which is typical all over town. Anyway, the RV Park is very clean and the managers/staff are helpful and polite. The place is clean and the other guests seem very friendly. This was our first trip to Quartzsite and if we ever come back we will likely stay here again. They parked us near the hi way in a pull through site, so we didn’t have to unhook our tow dolly. There was quite a bit of road noise but it wasn’t bad during the night. The sites away from the hi way would probably be much quieter. The internet was sketchy but our Verizon cell service worked fine. The $20 rate for full hookups was sweet.

We found this campground when Tumalo State Park had no openings, and we are sure glad we did. The park is in town and a short walk to just about anything we’ve needed. The park is clean and the bathrooms are new. The camp hosts are City employees and do a great job. There’s an interesting mix walk-in/bike campsites along with car campers and RV sites with full and partial hookups.

We loved being able to walk to town for coffee, fresh bread and dinner. We were here mid summer and nearby entertainment activities were endless. There is some road noise as the passing trucks can be noisy.

We stayed here one night heading north to Oregon on Hwy 101. They only do first come first serve, so my wife drove ahead and luckily grabbed one of two sites with water and power. Those two sites would easily accommodate a 35’ RV, as would a few of the dry camping sites. Some of the sites had great views if the sunset over the lagoon. Most of the sites were better suited for small RVs or tent camping.

The bathrooms were clean but showers closed due to COVID restrictions. They sell firewood by the bucket or wheelbarrow full. The Camphost, whose real name is “Dude”, was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Very helpful and patient to all who stopped. And, it was August so a lot of people stopped in to find the campground full and Dude was quite empathetic offering suggestions about where they might find a place to camp for the night.

Verizon texting and phone worked okay but not Internet.